


A Coat of Many Colours

by VoiceOfNurse



Series: Que Sera [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Presents, Team as Family, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 02:22:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9413663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoiceOfNurse/pseuds/VoiceOfNurse
Summary: Bucky gets a gift in the mail.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've been feeling awful lately, but today has been a good day, and OMOWatcher gave me a prompt. :) For you, my lovely. 
> 
> As always, thank you Lauralot for letting me play in your sandbox.

The package arrived on a Tuesday, wrapped in pink paper and clumsily addressed to Bucky in green pen. Because Tony was careful, the package went through at least three levels of security scanning before it was passed to Steve, who set it on Bucky’s nightstand. 

Which was why, when Bucky woke up that morning, it was to a package and a card that definitely hadn’t been there the night before. Frowning, he lifted up the card, noting that it had been written in the same sloppy hand, with the faintest traces of pencil outlines underneath, as though someone had sketched out his name and address first, before it had been gone over by a second, far less literate person. 

He spent a full five minutes examining the envelope and box in minute detail, suspicious, before passing it to Bucky Bear for a second opinion. Bucky Bear didn’t find much extra, other than pointing out that the gel pen that had been used to write their address smelled faintly of watermelon. Bucky checked; it did. After a brief conference on the likelihood of super villains using scented gel pens, they decided that it was probably safe to open.

Bucky picked the envelope open first, painstakingly careful so that the flap came away in one piece. The card inside was hand made, stiff white card folded not-quite in half, and had bears on the front. A childish representation of what could only be Bucky Bear was holding hands with a bright blue bear with a bow around its neck, big smiles drawn on both of their faces with crayon. Bucky Bear wasn’t entirely sure he approved of the ridiculous expression he was sporting in the portrait, but Bucky shushed him. He actually thought the drawing was quite nice. 

Already convinced he knew where the card had come from, Bucky’s suspicions were confirmed when he flipped it open. Inside, drawn over more partially concealed pencil marks, was a simple message: 

**Dear Bucky and Bucky Bear**

**Thank you for our play date**

**Love Millie**

Bucky couldn’t have stopped the grin that split his face even if he’d wanted to. As it was, he set the card carefully to one side and scooted the parcel into his lap. It was surprisingly heavy, for being quite small, and it made a soft rattling sound when he gave it a gentle shake. Millie had expressed a fondness for many things during their play date, and Bucky silently added ‘giving presents’ to the list. 

Under the wrapping paper, there was a simple cardboard box decorated with stickers. There were some princesses, some animals, and, rather oddly, a large set of teeth arranged haphazardly across the surface. Bucky Bear wasn’t entirely pleased at the lack of bears, but Bucky reassured him that  _ their  _ bear stickers were special order, provided by Tony, and Millie probably didn’t have any. 

_ She needs some,  _ Bucky Bear insisted, only partially mollified.  _ What good are stickers if there aren’t bears?  _

Bucky had to agree; princess stickers were all well and good, but Bear stickers were infinitely better, if harder to come by. Clint had gone out once and found him some in a store, but none of the bears looked quite right, and Bucky Bear hadn’t liked them at all. Tony’s custom made Bearvengers stickers had gone down a whole lot better, when he’d presented them to Bucky some weeks previously. Even Clint had liked them, and spent the next few days proudly wearing a Hawk Bear sticker. 

There was a letter inside the box, covering up whatever Millie had decided to send him. It was written in an older hand, small and slightly slanted to the right. 

_ Dear Bucky,  _ it read. 

_ Millie had a great time with you last week. She couldn’t stop talking about it for days. I’m so pleased you felt comfortable enough to meet her; it really made her day. She’s decided that you’re her favorite superhero, and wanted to give you a present to say thank you for having her.  _

“Not a superhero,” Bucky muttered, mostly to himself, torn between shame and cautious, guilty pride. He read on, his own feelings discomforting. 

_ She got you this because you are, I quote ;”grown up enough to be allowed”. Personally, I think she was trying to guilt me into getting her some as well. She was out of luck, but if you don’t like it, you have my permission to set it aside for when she’s next round. You are allowed to use it on her on your next play date. Trust me: she’ll love you even more if you do.  _

_ It was lovely to see you again, _

_ Maggie.  _

Deeply curious now, Bucky put the letter with the card and upended the box onto his comforter. Inside, wrapped in tissue paper, were a surprisingly large number of nail polish bottles in various shades. Bucky found himself drawn to a bright blue that matched Steve’s shield, and a near-neon yellow that he could imagine Clint wearing just to annoy people. 

Near the bottom of the pile, there was a purple shade that had been wrapped in a piece of paper, secured with a rubber band. Peeling it away, he revealed another short note from Maggie.  _ Millie was worried that nail polish would be bad for bears. She found this one in the pet store. _

Bemused, Bucky read the label. Nail polish for dogs… apparently that was a thing. Bucky Bear wasn’t pleased at being given a product aimed at dogs, but he didn’t wear nail polish anyway, so he was willing to let it slide. He also quite approved of the idea of painting Tony’s nails with dog polish, and only telling him after. 

Bucky had never painted his nails before, but he’d seen Natasha do it on more than one occasion. She tended to use scary looking products in dark bottles which she set with a lamp that made Bucky’s head hurt. These weren’t like that, though; they were bright, in childish colours, and bragged about being quick to dry. He was curious about the difference, and found himself opening the Captain America blue shade without really giving it much thought. 

It looked nice, he decided, using his metal hand to spread it on his thumbnail. It took a surprising amount of focus to spread it evenly and not get any on his skin, but once he was done he viewed his work with a glowing sense of achievement. He liked it. 

Somewhere in his head, there was the knowledge that you were supposed to paint your nails all one colour, but Bucky thought that the other Avengers would feel left out if he did that. Instead, he sorted through the colours, picking out a bright red for Tony, a purple for Clint, a blue so dark it was nearly black for Natasha, and a creamy green for Bruce. 

Once he’d painted the rest of the nails on his flesh hand, he realised that he’d left some people out. That wasn’t any good. His metal hand wasn’t really made to have its nails painted, and Bucky spent a moment wondering what he could do instead. 

Which was why, when Steve entered Bucky’s room a few minutes later, it was to find his friend folded near in half, painting his toenails in various garish colours. 

“What have you got there?” he asked, bemused. Bucky grunted, not looking up from where he was painting his left pinky nail lemon yellow. It was only once he was well and truly done, the bottle closed and returned to the pile, that he looked up at Steve. 

There was a grin all but bisecting his face, and Steve felt the puzzlement rapidly replaced with joy. 

“Millie sent me nail polish. I’m testing it out,” Bucky explained, jabbing a purple painted finger at the bottles strewn all over his covers. “It’s quick-dry, see?” To demonstrate, he gave his thumbnail a poke; the polish stayed exactly where it was. 

Steve had no idea what quick-dry really meant, but Bucky was happy, which was all that actually mattered. He flashed a grin of his own, then offered his hand. “Will you do mine?” 

“What colour?” Bucky was already sorting his stash out into piles, putting together similar colours so that Steve could choose his favorite. “I don’t have a white, but there’s a red and a blue?” 

Steve decided in that moment to get Bucky as many different colours of nail polish that existed on the market, because anything that made him smile like that was worth the price. “How about we leave the middle fingers without any polish, and do the rest red and blue? That’s close enough, right?” 

Bucky seemed to contemplate Steve’s idea, a faint frown between his eyebrows, before his smile came back in full force. “That works!” Apparently happy that they had found a satisfactory solution to the lack of white issue, Bucky grabbed Steve’s hand and put it on his own knee, squinting in concentration as he started applying colours. 

~*~

Steve had to admit, his enthusiasm went a long way towards the impromptu nail salon he found set up in the kitchen when he came back from his run that morning. Apparently Tony had been feeling left out, and asked Bucky to do his nails as well, which had lead to Clint insisting that he needed a coat of purple, and even Natasha donating her nails to Bucky’s increasingly adventurous skills. 

It became a habit after that. Bucky wore nail polish more days than he didn’t, and it became routine to see one or other of the Avengers sitting at the table of a morning having their nails done. Steve wasn’t sure how Bucky always seemed to know when someone got a chip, but after the third time he found Bucky sat waiting to renew his polish, it became apparent that there was some sort of system in place. 

Tony was the most enthusiastic about the whole thing, and could be found chatting animatedly about different formulas and colours, so when the three hundred piece nail art set, with custom Avengers decals, was delivered to the Tower a week later, none of them were in the least bit surprised. 


End file.
